Verner Panton

Verner Panton

Verner Panton, the Danish industrial designer and architect known for his radical molded-plastic chairs, Op Art-inspired textiles and lighting, died at his home in Copenhagen on Sept. 5. He was 72.

The cause was a heart attack, according to his office in Basel, Switzerland, where he also had a residence.

Mr. Panton was in the forefront of postwar European and American designers who were exploring new materials and their potential for mass production.

Like Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen before him, Mr. Panton focused on the marriage between organic form and new technologies, adding his own imaginative twist, which made his designs Pop icons of the 1960's.

Verner Panton was born on Feb. 13, 1926, in Gamtofte, Denmark. He studied at the Odense Technical School and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

From 1950 to 1952, Mr. Panton worked for Arne Jacobsen, Denmark's premier designer, and in 1955 he established his own architecture and design office, first in Denmark and later in Binningen, Switzerland, where he moved in 1963. In 1964, he married Marianne Pherson, who continues to work in his design studio.

The reissues of the designs by Vitra Panton and the retrospective of Panton's work organized by the Vitra Design Museum in 2000 highlight the special relationship between Vitra Verner Panton.